Dunia Taylor: Creating a Family at REMI Realty

Tracy Hayes  1:14  
Welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host Tracy Hayes, another best of the best on the show today. She hails from Birmingham, Alabama, but has lived in Jacksonville for the last 36 years. She has degrees in business management and mass communications from the University of Florida. Oddly, however, she sticks with winners when it comes to football, and as an avid University of Alabama fan, we are going to learn how she started in real estate part time, but quickly had to go all in. She has her has had her license for 15 years, and in 2016 opened her own brokerage, Remy Realty. We are a faith based organization with a direct focus on making sure our customers receive the finest service for all their real estate needs, DT scores, TDS for Remy Realty. Let's welcome the owner, broker of Remy Realty, the lovely and talented dunya Taylor, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for coming on the show. You know, like we talked pre show, I was limited to my investigation, but we will get stuff out of you. There wasn't a lot of but there was some personal statements on your social media like Alabama and so forth. Yeah, definitely. Is it a family tradition to be Crimson Tide?

Dunya Taylor  2:28  
It is, it is, we were all born there. I have two sisters and a brother, and we definitely have banned in

Tracy Hayes  2:32  
our blood. Someone tells me they went to the University of Alabama and you didn't.

Dunya Taylor  2:36  
They did not. They did not. They did not. We all went to school here, so we moved here so we moved here when I was about one and a half years old. Oh, okay, we've been in Florida for 30 interesting.

Tracy Hayes  2:47  
There is a lot of, you know, just knowing the kids graduating right now, and there's a lot of lot of kids going to Alabama though now,

Dunya Taylor  2:53  
yeah, it's a great school. It really is a great school. Um, I would have went there if I had a scholarship that basically forced me to stay in the state of Florida, which was fine, yeah, and you have had a great business school, so I decided to go there.

Tracy Hayes  3:05  
Well, you know, if you're going to live in Jacksonville, yeah, hopefully that pays off. Oh, yeah. Definitely. One of my greatest circles of influence is my alumni group, and we stay tight and have events. And, you know, it's just another bonding no matter what year you graduated? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I just surreal moment where I'm talking to guys that graduated 30 years before me, you know, I find it just like so and then even the young guys now, because I'm like, I'm like, in between, I'm going to be going to my 30s reunion, but I'm, you know, talking and mixing and mingles with guys that graduated here in the last 510,

Dunya Taylor  3:39  
years, you know. So it's definitely great conversation, sir,

Tracy Hayes  3:41  
yeah, you tread it over the same turf that you know you've been to the same thing, whatever reason you chose to go to Gainesville and so forth, is a bond, in a way, so absolutely, well, you just mentioned you moved to Jacksonville when you were one and a half. Your parents get transferred or something, or just chose to get up

Dunya Taylor  3:58  
and, well, my father passed away, and my mom's side of the family was in Florida, so she needed help with all of us young kids, you know, four of us, and we're all pretty strong headed and stubborn, but it's turned out to be great for all of us.

Tracy Hayes  4:12  
So you your family still? You mentioned a brother and sister?

Dunya Taylor  4:16  
Yep, I have two sisters and brother. We're all here. I actually have one sister that lives in Gainesville with her husband and family, and the rest of us are still here in Jacksonville, and then my dad's side of the family is basically all in Birmingham still.

Tracy Hayes  4:27  
So just a question. I just just thought of what you were just talking about. How has that made you feel? Because, I mean, you were doing some corporate America stuff, and then to and then in real you know, you got into real estate, but then even make that leap in there, to know that you have the support system, yeah, close by.

Dunya Taylor  4:44  
Yeah, absolutely, it definitely helps, though. I feel like my business has grown and we're all, you know, we all have great jobs. We all went to college, my sisters and brother, but most of my referrals come from my family. Yeah, you know, we have a really big family, and having that support close by. And, I mean. Are definitely my number one supporters. They're the first ones to share and like all of my posts. And it's a huge deal for me

Tracy Hayes  5:06  
that that's so so important, whether it's friends or, like you said, people you like and trust, obviously, and to be your your biggest cheerleaders, means so much, so much. And I imagine you know that month you worked really hard to get. You know that one or two deals from outside that circle, all of a sudden someone calls up and says, Hey, your sister referred me over. And you're like, whoo, man, does that feel good?

Dunya Taylor  5:30  
We're all in different industries too. So you know, you need that referral business. You know two of them work in healthcare, and you know nurses are the top ones that want to buy homes and everything. So it definitely helps a lot,

Tracy Hayes  5:41  
because I really been harping on circle of influence the last few weeks. You know, of course, training with the loan officers that you just met with there, and reaching out and letting everyone they know, their family friends. Hey, this is what I do when you know, when you first started, you may be a little bit different to you, but I'm sure 15 years you've seen others have different I had George Potten Kellerman from Christina Welch's team, mentioned that he didn't attack his circle of influences early. He felt if he went right at him up front, his business would have taken a few notches faster than but he waited and he, you know, he played the system that they were working with. And it wasn't until a few years into the business that he really started reaching out to his friends and family.

Dunya Taylor  6:21  
Yeah. I mean, I think it just all depends, too on how you start the industry as well. So I started it part time, so I really didn't have a whole lot of marketing. I didn't have a Facebook at the time that I started real estate. So there was really no way for me to market other than print ads and not a lot of people

Tracy Hayes  6:37  
or send, send everybody your your your wedding list, start sending cards, right? Yeah.

Dunya Taylor  6:41  
I mean, that would have worked. It's not a bad idea. But yeah, so it really just depends if I was in real estate full time and all I wanted to do was real estate and push it through. Then, yeah, I probably would have hit a bunch of different audiences as well.

Tracy Hayes  6:55  
So if you were starting today, just to, you know, obviously, yeah, Facebook wasn't as prevalent, or even, was it, I know, you know, when it came 15 years ago? Yeah, you weren't. You know, wasn't. But obviously, with social media that we have today, how would how, what would be like, one thing you would definitely do differently today than what you had because the tools you didn't have 15 years ago.

Dunya Taylor  7:14  
So, I mean, definitely, I mean, I still want to hit my direct audience, you know, because I find that, you know, we talked about this earlier this morning, that relationships are most important to everybody, especially when they're making such a big purchase, they want to make sure that they are with somebody that they can trust Absolutely. So just building that, building that awareness to your friends and family, and staying in your bubble, that'll get you the referrals that you don't know. That'll get you that outside referral system.

Tracy Hayes  7:39  
So someone coming in the business today, applying there's a lot of knowledge out there. There's a lot of smart people like Tanya that can really shorten your learning gap down. And really, actually, if you do the things correctly and attack that circle of influence, leveraging social media and the other things that you can do, get that circle of influence, those people already like and trust you

Dunya Taylor  8:00  
absolutely, and it really just depends on your audience and and how to reach them. So I have a lot of younger audience. They're on social media, you know, but I just recently opened an office in Amelia Island. That's a totally different audience. Those are vacationers. Those are people that are sitting on the beach, sitting in restaurants, you know, walking up and down there. It's a dog friendly community. So, you know, we do our ads based off of puppies in the Windows or so. My puppy name is Remy. Put him a lot on there, but, yeah, no, but it, but they're reading print ads, you know. So depending on where you are and who you want to market to, that depends on if you use social media or print ads or

Tracy Hayes  8:37  
anything like that, interesting. So your attack initial marketing presence is, is to make some presence with the local businesses that these people are visiting, who may be thinking it would be interesting to have a condo here, or whatever,

Dunya Taylor  8:49  
absolutely interesting. We've met more people from out of town over in that area than anything else that that led to our new marketing plan of doing print ads, because that's what they're doing. We're out there reading papers.

Tracy Hayes  8:59  
I have this question in here, because you say, well, you went to University of Florida, but you're a Crimson Tide fan, but you did mention faith based organization. Are you a Tim Tebow fan? Do you follow Tim?

Dunya Taylor  9:11  
So I went to school with him. Okay, he was there when I was at when I was in college there. I do follow him, you know, mainly because he actually grew up right around the corner from where I live, on the west side. It's kind of west of the west side of Jacksonville. So I do like Tim Timo. I follow him and his wife and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, football,

Tracy Hayes  9:31  
yeah, he does some, he had to ask. She had, you know, posted yesterday with him and his dad on LinkedIn. And actually, I did subscribe to subscribe to his text message. He'll send some motivational thing out, and so forth. He's really, yeah, they are really dedicated people that are trying to make changes in areas. Yeah, the follow Tim debo. I don't know who the Florida State fans hate him, but then they do have some respect for him. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I. Tell so you you go and take marketing what is your vision at University of Florida? What you wanted to do?

Dunya Taylor  10:06  
I really didn't have a vision, to be honest with you. I actually wanted to go to school for psychology when I first started

Tracy Hayes  10:13  
psychology, when I first

Dunya Taylor  10:15  
started but then I found out how much school that was, and it was like, Oh, I don't know if I want to do that much. So I took a couple of business classes and marketing classes at Florida. I was like, wow, this is a lot of fun. A lot of psychology kind of goes hand in hand with each other. So so I started taking more marketing classes, and I started I did the mass communications, because that was a big thing at the time, for sure, and it's helped me a lot. I learned more at the University of Florida than I did anywhere else for marketing. I mean, it was really a great education. And so when I graduated, I graduated a little bit early, because I went through summer instead of taking the summer off. And so I really didn't know what I wanted to do. So I actually started working at a local real estate company, doing their press releases and marketing clubs, okay? And that's how I got into real estate.

Tracy Hayes  10:58  
She wasn't on LinkedIn, so I didn't know this go on.

Dunya Taylor  11:02  
So I was like, Oh, this is, this is kind of fun. I can do this. And I saved my money while I was in college. I had scholarships, but I worked a little bit as well. So when I moved back, I wanted to buy my first house. So, you know, I picked one of the agents there that I was working with, and she just, she didn't have that relationship, that communication with me. I mean, it was like a totally different market than it was 2009 and I was like, wow, I think I can just do this myself. So I went and did the week long course, got my real estate license, sold my first house to myself, Okay? And then I still have that home. It's a great investment property for me, because, you know, I bought it. I bought it, you know, 2009 10. That was a great time to purchase at the time, yep. So I bought that house, and then I was like, Well, this is kind of fun. So that's what led me into led me into doing real estate part time. And then I got a job at a local ad agency, and I absolutely loved it. Absolutely that was probably my favorite job I've had.

Tracy Hayes  11:50  
So how long were you doing the part time? Not long, I'd say probably, oh, part time, real estate, part time real estate, and still working a full time job. I did it

Dunya Taylor  11:59  
probably about eight nine years. Oh, wow, I did it for a while. Yeah, I went to work at an ad agency, and then I worked at a local.

Tracy Hayes  12:06  
I don't where I so I actually said, you quickly, you know, went all in, but actually, I know where I saw that. I actually typed that in my intro, so I've actually correct that. So eight or nine years, part time.

Dunya Taylor  12:16  
Interesting, yep. So I was doing I worked at the ad agency, then I went to corporate marketing at a local hospital, and then I switched and went to corporate marketing at a local college, community college here in Jacksonville,

Tracy Hayes  12:29  
so on out. You know, there's eight or nine years. How many deals are you doing? You know, how busy are you and, you know, obviously, because you're working full time,

Dunya Taylor  12:37  
I was probably doing not many. I would say probably six or seven a year. Not many at all. You know, it was, you know, it was by myself. I was young, had my first house, you know, worked in corporate America,

Tracy Hayes  12:49  
letting your family, family knew you were an agent. And I imagine, you know, probably a good percentage, 25% of the deals just came from family, just saying,

Dunya Taylor  12:58  
yeah, it was mainly just vacation money for me at the time. And then when I decided to do it full time, that's when I started marketing. And then I was closing five or six a month.

Tracy Hayes  13:06  
So that's interesting. So my question is, over that eight or nine years, and having the marketing background that you you did, you probably saw a lot of things that worked and not things that didn't work. Exactly what are some expand on that for me.

Dunya Taylor  13:21  
So that's definitely, that's a big thing, and that's what I teach my agents. You know, do your marketing now. Figure out what works. Let's sit down. Let's make a marketing plan. Let's work through that marketing plan. Give it a few months. Let's see if it's working. If it's not, then obviously that's not the marketing plan for you. So we turn around, we shift gears, and figure out what does work. And that's what I do every day in my in my life. So working, when I worked corporate marketing, it was all about referrals. We talked about I had no social media at the time, none. I think Instagram was starting to get big at the time, when I opened Remy Realty, decided to go full time, I opened up a Facebook page and that literally people went, Oh, I forgot you did real estate. So just hearing that helps me teach my agents, remind you

Tracy Hayes  14:02  
Right, right? What are some things you see? Maybe I don't want to say necessarily today, but I mean, I think anyone who starts a small business, which is really what you're doing, you become a real estate agent. You are your own business. You may be under some brokerage, but you are you, and you have to do your marketing plan that obviously works for you, absolutely. There's some people obviously that really 10x the social media, and they're and they say they're getting deals off they're creating relationships. I know just from my content, just from the shooting a couple podcasts a week and the content that spins off of it, people who know like and trust me, I am in front of them every day of the week, and they're seeing me, see me talking about real estate and so forth. So they see me all the time. And I tell people, since I've started the podcast, I've gotten, you know, just over a year now, you're in a couple of weeks, I've gotten more of my circles of influence referrals than ever in the previous 16 years.

Dunya Taylor  14:57  
Yeah, absolutely. You work it through, and you figure. Out what works and what builds your business and what doesn't, and then that's what you expand on.

Tracy Hayes  15:04  
So one of the one of the terms themes that I get from top agents like yourself, is consistency. You mentioned you try a marketing plan, and you need to try, what do you think is a reasonable and I assume this might be based on what you're actually doing. Yeah. But what? What is a reasonable minimum amount of time you got to try a marketing concept before you can possibly see some results?

Dunya Taylor  15:29  
I would say at least three months. You definitely need to make sure you're getting out there. It might take somebody 30 days really decide that they want to buy a house or sell a house. And it's not necessarily about constantly reminding people, Hey, I'm a real estate agent. Hey, I'm a real estate agent. But slipping in little cues here and there that definitely helps. So every time I'm posting a picture, there's a reason I'm posting that specific picture. There's like, a koozie in the background, or a pen in the background. There's something just to remind somebody, Hey, right? She does real estate. Still, everybody knows

Tracy Hayes  15:58  
I have a seminar because I was on my community development district CDD for 11 years, and I put together a little two hour seminar that I offer anyone to come out there. But the main theme of that CDD is lifestyle. So whether you're out on the boat or, you know, you're you're eating something, eating at a restaurant or whatever, you know, if you had a great you'll take a picture with the sign in the background. Oh, man, we just had a great meal at whatever. Or you're out at the beach. Hey, we're enjoying the Florida lifestyle. You have to throw some of those things in there.

Dunya Taylor  16:29  
You do. You do. And people want to feel comfortable with you. They want to relate to you. So we're big on family at our brokerage, and we're big on animals. We love dogs. We love dogs. So, yeah, my agent stroke with me. They're like, your dogs have no idea they're actually dogs like, yeah. But you know, people relate to it, especially with our new offices. They're very dog friendly. We have treats and noggles at the front door of our office in Amelia

Tracy Hayes  16:53  
another what you know? So, you know, we took down a little bit early, just a few minutes ago, going to University of Florida. In, you know, living in Jacksonville, well, there's a lot of University of Florida alumni here. You tread it over the same turf. Whether you were there at the same time, it doesn't matter, right? You went to the same buildings, you went to the same classrooms, and all that type stuff. Your dog lovers, obviously, that's actually very popular. But even if you're a cat lover, if you like cat people bond. Oh, you like cats too. Oh, you like dogs too, or you have that kind of dog. Oh, I love you. You know, they bond with that stuff because you have similar interests.

Dunya Taylor  17:32  
And that's true in a recent story about that is, I just bought my niece a new puppy from a breeder about two and a half hours south of Jacksonville, and now we're friends on Facebook. Well, she contacted me, and she's interested in purchasing a house, and she asked if I could do there. And I was like, I'm licensed in the whole state of Florida.

Tracy Hayes  17:49  
At least get the referrals. You don't want to travel down there, but certainly, yeah, it's a great area. Definitely, you had a like interest that puppy, right? That bought brought you together. And you never know. I always tell you, never know what's under the rock and letting someone know, as I sure this person you know, a lot of the breeders want to know who's buying their dogs too, right? So they looked you up, or you probably maybe even talked or gave her your card or something, but you let her know you're in the business, and who's the first person seeing a call you just did business with them, yeah, and and bought a breed that she's in love with. Most breeders don't breed something they don't like, right?

Dunya Taylor  18:25  
There's always a way for real estate to come up in a conversation. Yes, I tell my agents, if you, if you want to get yourself out there, find a way in the conversation to bring it Well, I think

Tracy Hayes  18:34  
that tips a little bit. You were talking earlier in the sales meeting about the market conditions. And everybody needs a house to live in. They do. And Florida's in demand, because, you know, it doesn't snow here. And amongst the other, a lot of other things that we could do. And I was talking to Cole slate on Thursday, and we were talking about, people have found our hidden gem here in Jacksonville, and that is all the different things that you can do. Because the way our geographics are, we have the river. If you're a boater, you have you can boat on the river, you can boat on the intercoastal, or if you want to go offshore, you can do that. There's so many different things to do, and you need to share that with others, and then we'll

Dunya Taylor  19:12  
connect with you. Oh, absolutely, yeah, we did a lot of that with our voting.

Tracy Hayes  19:17  
All right, so let's look back. I want I want to go. I want to, I want you to answer this question in pre 2016 Okay, and then after 2016 Okay, What mistakes have you made?

Dunya Taylor  19:30  
Mistakes? Okay,

Tracy Hayes  19:31  
so I Well, which are, which I call failing forward, absolutely, learning lessons, absolutely, absolutely.

Dunya Taylor  19:37  
So when I first started, I was doing it part time, and I wasn't as dedicated as I should have been, and not just in promoting myself and doing all that kind of stuff. It was the education piece that I didn't know at the time was so important. So I was over there being, you know, basically just the paper pusher, making sure everything was correct, but not actually understanding everything properly. And since I worked. You know, it's a lot different nowadays, with different brokers and everything. But since I did it part time, the brokers that I worked for weren't as invested in me. And they didn't, you know, they, they put as much investment in me as I did the business, right? Essentially, yeah, you know. So it was no fault to them. It was

Tracy Hayes  20:13  
my you get in what you you get in what you put in, get out what you put in, right, exactly.

Dunya Taylor  20:18  
And so that that was a big piece. So, so I decided, hey, I need to learn a lot more. So I started doing those classes with nefar. I started just researching things, looking online, making sure I knew every single line of the contract. Because I told myself, if I ever do open my brokerage, my agents are going to be fully compliant. They're going to understand the contracts. They're going to know everything on that contract. Because I didn't have that training. When I first started, I had to learn myself. I was calling legal hotline, trying to figure things out myself, and, you know, doing everything. And now I know the contract looks like

Tracy Hayes  20:48  
my hand. So the mistake was you didn't put forth the energy into the education. And in this, in this particular situation, if someone wants someone, if there's some one thing they need to learn right away, would be the contract, absolutely the first thing, because you come out of that class, you come out of the training they're talking about when you need to renew your license and stuff like that on the test. I mean how much it's going to cost, which is like, by the time you renew, it's going to cost more Anyway, anyway, so, but if you're gonna take any one course, first get in there and dig into the contract, absolutely.

Dunya Taylor  21:18  
And I feel like the more you know, the more confident you are in the business.

Tracy Hayes  21:22  
Interesting, even though it's a well, what we find here in this area is you have, there's, like, several different contracts that you may run across. And again, whether you're in St John's County, Flagler ne far has got theirs, and there's different ones. And those things are on different pages. They're worded slightly different. I still don't understand that. But you know what, after our sales meeting this morning, I'm going to contact nefar and I'm gonna find out I'm gonna get in the next class on contracts.

Dunya Taylor  21:51  
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely good to know. I mean, like I said, if you understand the contracts, you're that's you're already ahead of everybody else in the industry. Because there's a lot of people who don't understand it. They don't put the time in to actually read them and understand what this means, what this means, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And get with attorneys. There's so many closing attorneys out here

Tracy Hayes  22:09  
that want to help, that want to help. They want your business, but that's why they're willing to help Exactly, exactly how to work. Because I think one thing, when we run to or over the years from the loan officer side, there's a repair needed, negotiate it over. It's not gonna stop the house from closing. It's something the buyers want be fixed, painted, whatever, absolutely, instead of actually doing the repair, they're just gonna exchange money. They're gonna get some seller concessions. And, you know, they want to write in there, this is for, no, I don't want to know what it's for. Just say they're giving them $500 whatever it doesn't, I don't. We're not gonna ask why. Yeah, that's the contract. They know. Why that information, last information on that is better. Last thing you want is an underwriter digging in. And why do we need to do this repair you don't need, even though they probably won't even ask the chain, you know, but the chances are there might be something don't need. The details. How much is the money? And here we're gonna give them so much concessions. Great. Okay, everyone's happy, Yep, let's proceed. So that was pre 16. So now you've been in leadership, right? You opened your own place. Was it, I assume it was just you in the beginning, or did you have it was just you solo now you have, how many agents are you working with? I have 16 agents, 16 agents that you're working with. What mistakes have you made in the last six years? Or a mistake, we'll just say a mistake we know, hopefully, well, and hopefully you made many, but you made enough to learn and get better. So what's a what's one mistake that you could say that, you know, you go back and say, Yeah, I learned for that

Dunya Taylor  23:33  
one well, you know. And it goes back to the whole relationships with your agents, and having quality agents over quantity of agents. So I learned that not just to hire everybody that comes on board with me, because that causes more work for me than I'm failing in other areas. You know, I'm doing my own deals. I have my own goals. We're family at our brokerage, but we're very competitive on sales volume, on who can get the highest sales volume, and, you know, they can't beat me, but, but they, you know, they're very competitive in that and if I'm not giving them the education and the time that they need in order for them to better themselves, then we're all going to fail in the industry. So I feel like just, just being there for them has been huge for for us. So when

Tracy Hayes  24:16  
you are, someone comes to you and says, Hey, I want to join your brokerage. Or maybe you're, you're just, you're just someone crosses in front of you, like, oh, maybe that person might be, you know, good on the team. What are some things that you're looking for? What do you ask this sounds like, if your guys are very, you know, competitive in a healthy way. The great thing is, yeah, somebody way out there, and it's great. But you know, if that bottom person is still meeting their goals at the end, because they were chasing the guy. I always tell the story I was never was a runner, but, you know, that's where I went to, the Citadel the military colleges South Carolina, we had to take physical fitness tests every semester. So I would find the guys that could run like the wind, and I would tell them, I challenge them. And I would actually just try to stay within sight distance, because that was just pushing me to know. That I could pass the minimums, right? And if you chasing that person at the top, doing the things that the person at the top, and you're reaching your goal, you're only going to continue to grow every month after month after month. So there's a positive thing to that. So what do you look for to find someone who's got that same kind of, that kind of drive and competitiveness?

Dunya Taylor  25:18  
So, so I'm very clear in the beginning, you know, and I just basically tell them, you know, I interview the agent. And typically the people that come to Remy Realty, somebody knows in the brokerage, you know their referral from family or church or friends, or, you know their referral from somebody. So typically, we know them, and, you know, if we just have a good vibe, and I can see that they're dedicated and they're motivated, that's the biggest thing. A lot of people think real estate super easy, but if you're not motivated to want to do motivated to want to do more, then you know, if you're meeting your goals, that's great, but you need to go past those you need to have higher goals. You know, if you're meeting your goals every time, make them higher. Yeah, push through anymore. Yeah. And it's definitely helped all my agents. I mean, they're, you know, more of them come to the trainings now, because we do a lot of them on Zoom. They ask more questions. They want to learn. They they're like, hungry for it, right? And that's what I like. That's what I look for in an agent. I want somebody that wants to grow.

Tracy Hayes  26:09  
If you're I'm sure some of your people will watch this if they're not already watching or running. One of the common themes, and there's, there's, there's three real strong ones. One was consistency we talked about earlier in more in your marketing things, whatever you're doing, whether it's your consistent cold calling, your consistent posting, social media, videos, whatever those things, consistent, consistent. Just keep doing them. Some take longer than 90 days, though. Okay? Some, I will tell you. I've been the podcast, things have changed for me because people are watching your friends and family are watching what you're doing, and some of them won't do business with you right away, yeah, oh, you're still doing that. Okay, oh, you've been doing it 15 years now. Okay, I can do a deal with you

Dunya Taylor  26:50  
and I, and I've had people that have never liked to post, never shared posts at honestly, forgot we were friends on Facebook, and they've come to me and they wanted my house secretly watching you. They're seeing it, yeah, and that's why some people don't, don't just say, Oh man, only two people like that post. It doesn't matter. 500 people could have seen it, right? You know, just keep pushing through. Just keep wanting that, that drive to do better.

Tracy Hayes  27:11  
So the other theme, what I was getting to there was, is education. Oh yeah, it is, if you want to go back, you have not listened to any other podcast, but this one, go back and you know, either listen to them all. I'd love for you to do that like and share and make comments, but if you go back and listen, education is in every one of those of the top agents that have been on the show. They're going to be at the Jax real producers event tomorrow. I guarantee you go up to him. Education, education, education. I'm just somewhat Stevie Hayes popping in front of my head, she went out and started having coffees with home inspectors and loan officers. She wanted to learn everything as a young person about the industry that she could, and take in all the knowledge she can. Because I would you agree that knowledge becomes confidence.

Dunya Taylor  27:56  
It really does. It really does. And there, you know, you think you know everything, but you don't. I'm still learning as I go. You know, every time market changes you go, it changes so much, and guidelines change. You know, everything changes, so you have to just stay on top of it. And you know, you might know everything right now, but six months down the road could be everything could be totally different. Contracts change. You know, the minute ne far puts out, or Yeah, nefar, basically when they put out, contract changes. We're on a zoom call that night going over them to my agents. Hey, this has changed. Y'all need to pay attention to this.

Tracy Hayes  28:26  
I mean, your last, I don't know, I was roughly a year and a half or so that we, you know, the multiple offers coming. Oh, yeah. And, you know, I've heard some groans from agents, you know, especially when they have that the selling agent who is that person who's not dedicated and driven or kind of, some of the people we've been we were talking about in the sales meeting, and all sudden, they got 20 offers, and they're overwhelmed. Well, if you were educating yourself on the business, or you were with a broker who was keeping you up to date, you would have known you were going to have 2025, offers, and you would know how you want to filter them out and which one you want to present to

Dunya Taylor  29:02  
your Absolutely. We have a seller. We have a lot of processes at our brokerage. I've tried to make life easy for them, but in a good way. So, you know, we have spreadsheets. Okay, you got multiple offers. Plug these in, and that way it's easier for you to go over it with a customer. You know, the highest offer is not necessarily the best offer. You have to look at everything you know to make sure you're making the most educated decisions to tell your customer, hey, look, this offer has this, this and this, this one has this, this and this, and then they can make a decision based off of all the information, and not just purchase price.

Tracy Hayes  29:30  
And that's the value that you add, one of the many values you add to your people. But if you're, if you're sitting here and you're, you know, those agents are told to go out and talk to some several brokers to figure out which one fits them. One of the value you have to interview the broker and say, What are you going to help me? Well, one of the examples could be just that this is something I do for my agents. When the market went this way, we knew we're going to get 1520, plus offers. We need to be prepared. Yeah, absolutely. And to foreshadow what's. Coming on. Course you're in touch. Because I would imagine one of the other themes is surrounding yourself by other

Dunya Taylor  30:06  
successful agents. Oh, absolutely.

Tracy Hayes  30:08  
Can you just share with us some of the people that that have helped you, or that you confide in, or, you know, you call sometimes and say, Man, what is up?

Dunya Taylor  30:18  
Yeah. Well, we so, you know, over the years, I've been doing it for a long time. I have most of my friends are real estate agents. You know, it's just, excuse me, it's just how it goes. You know, they're mostly real estate agents, and they all work for different brokerages. I have some of my best friends that work at exit, you know, I worked at exit briefly years ago. And, you know, we just, we all have been in it for quite some time. So, you know, we'll call each other and say, Hey, what? What's like? Am I crazy, or is this crazy? You know? And then it's great to have that so that you can bounce off and not have any animosity in the business, you know, we all, we all have a lot of the same friends, too. And if somebody is trying to sell with me and not them, or one of my friends is selling with them and not them, you know, that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. It's whoever that customer feels okay with. And just being able to communicate about that customer without having any type of negative feedback back and forth, you know, I think it's huge. And actually one my old broker that I used to work for, it was a small brokerage out in Baker County, and she's the one that actually pushed me to get my broker license. It was just me and her, and I told her I was thinking about doing it, and she basically told me, nothing, you know, was gonna change when I got my broker license. And that kind of was like, oh, okay, well, yes, it will stop some time. I kind of want to grow so. And you know, she's one of my best friends.

Tracy Hayes  31:39  
Well, nothing's gonna change unless you change. Yeah? So she was kind of saying, Well,

Dunya Taylor  31:43  
when I she told me, when I got my broker license, like, you know, I couldn't help, like, grow the company or anything. She didn't want to grow anymore. She was just fine with her, yeah, she was good. But just me and her working there, she didn't do anything else. So it's like, okay, so I got my license, I opened up Remy Realty and and she still calls me to this day, you know, we have coffee from time to time just to hang out and chit chat and just talk about stuff. She does a lot in Baker County, and we just talk about the shifts in the market and everything. And she's, I mean, she was actually a blessing. Now, I thank her for being like that,

Tracy Hayes  32:11  
right, right? Well, in our world, in the loan officer world, you know, a guideline change may come, and we can send a mass email out, yeah, hey, they're no longer accepting this credit score. It's changed to this, okay, instantaneous. And the real estate market, you start to see the trends like we had the you know, that obviously is starting to taper off. Now, you're not getting as many offers as we were four months ago on a house because of, obviously, market the dishes. But that didn't just like, hey guys, tomorrow we're going to start getting 20 offers. Yeah, you start to see this gradual thing, like, all of a sudden you're in, you know, sharing with your other broker friends or other top real agents in the business. Like, Hey, man, I just listed a house and I got 20 offers. Oh, that's Whoa. Well, I got a listing coming up. Oh, I got a listing at 15. And you start seeing this trend. And you guys, because you guys are talking, you're now going in prepared.

Dunya Taylor  33:01  
Yeah, I tell my agents all the time, and I invite them to go to all networking events that I go to. I'm like, Y'all have no idea how much just talking to other agents helps you. It helps you. I have one agent, she works a full time job. Sometimes she comes into the office because she's remote, and she said, I learned so much just hearing you on the phone talking to people than anything else, 100% and I'm like, that. That's thing. You just have to keep talking to people, because then you learn so much

Tracy Hayes  33:25  
spinning on in the education piece. And well, education and hang in being educated by other successful people in the business. Because you're pulling that, you're pulling that's part, part of an education piece. But you know the whole thing, the cornerstone of all personal development books, hanging out with other successful people. What do you do to stay sharp, obviously, staying abreast of what's going on in the in the market conditions and so forth, to educate your realtors. But what do you do personally? Because my belief is the only thing holding us back is ourselves, and our beliefs, our mindset, is a big word that everyone's using. If you change your mindset, you can change a lot of things. What do you do? Are you a book reader, podcast listener? Do you like going to events? You just mentioned some socials, which, you know, you're exchanging some information there.

Dunya Taylor  34:11  
You know, in in I like to do a lot of community stuff too. I'm a member of the chamber. I'm an ambassador for chamber in naught County, and they have a lot of like business after hours. They have a lot of networking events there as well. And, you know, I just love to go to places and meet new people. Believe it or not, I used to be a really quiet person and very introverted, and my agents will tell me otherwise, but I never would do that. I never would go out and meet new people. I was

Tracy Hayes  34:35  
so you're trying to tell me, you like the cocktail parties because you get a couple in you and you're good. I'm good.

Dunya Taylor  34:42  
I am good after that, but, but yeah. I mean, I like peace and quiet too, you know, because we live such busy lives, I like to go out on my property, out in Baker County and just listen to the trees. Yeah, just it's nice to have quiet from time to time. But, you know, definitely staying involved with the community, I feel like, helps me grow her. Personally, because then I make, I meet new people. I make new friends. You know, I know a lot of the business owners out there in Amelia Island now, and, you know, just walking up and down the streets, I know everybody, and I like that feeling. You know, it's how you get your name out there, plus you grow personally doing that.

Tracy Hayes  35:14  
You know, it's you mentioned. I mean, it's very important to do what you took you like, to go out on your property and just hear the birds chirp the wind blow through the trees. I took a an assessment that John Brooks, from momentum, suggested I take, and that's one of the things I said, if I, if I'm presented with a problem and I have, you know, the weekend, or even a lot of times it's overnight, yeah, so sometimes things happen in your sleep. There's like your because your brain starts computing. But hey, taking some time where there's, you know, there's nothing. I grew up on Cape Cod and going out, we used to go out on the backside of Cape Cod and go and go cod fishing. You just jig for cod. Just turned off the engine. You're silent. And some of the beautiful things every so often, maybe a whale might go by, yeah, you know, you hear that often, but the silence or the water just let the water level inside of the boat. But your brain allows your allows you to start to calculate, or process, is the word process, all those things that you had, and you're like,

Dunya Taylor  36:13  
yeah, absolutely, absolutely, and it's good to do that. And we actually had a vote, and it was called Remy Realty, R, E, E, L, and that that was my like, just chill. My husband and I would go eat lunch on the boat once a week, like in the middle of the week, so it wasn't so busy, go down the marina, yeah. And we would just, we would just hang out there. And we both, we both needed, because he's busy as well contractor right now, and we just needed that time to sit, refresh, regroup, figure out what's going on in our lives. I'm a big to do list person, and I'm like, Oh, I can do all this in 30 minutes, but before I was stressed out thinking I had to do it. And, you know, like, it take me a day or two to do it, you start putting things in perspective. You can. I mean, it's a huge

Tracy Hayes  36:53  
what's urgent, what's not? Yeah, yeah. So when you started planning, so did you when you went full time? You went full time. You went and got your brokers. Were you still part time when you did that?

Dunya Taylor  37:03  
No, so I kind of made the launch. As soon as I get my broker license, it was okay.

Tracy Hayes  37:08  
So you did. You went full time, but you were working with the small the woman you were mentioning in Baker County, so it was just you and her. You were you, then you dove in full time at that point. But now you start thinking about Remy,

Dunya Taylor  37:19  
well, so I actually got my broker license with no intentions on building a team at the time, because I was scared. I didn't know what I would do, you know, I didn't know how to train anybody. But then I was like, You know what I can do this. I didn't have great training, and I made it, and I'm successful. And the reason she recruited me was because she said my contracts were so clean. She was like, I've never met anybody that literally filled everything out. And it was such a clean contract. It was a smooth process. That's why she recruited me to come work for us. She was like, I like you. You need to come here. So that's why I was like, Okay, now my agents are going to have. My agents are going to be like that now, yeah. So when my very first agents was actually a cousin of mine, him and his friend, came to work for me, and every agent that I have on my team right now has been people that have come to me wanting to work at Remy. I have not actively recruited any of them.

Tracy Hayes  38:03  
Have you ever told someone? No, I have hurts myself, yeah, yeah. Well, you like to think the best in there, but also you have a ship, and you don't want, you don't want to use the term, right? You want to bring poison or a rat on the ship, right? You gotta, you gotta protect the ship and what you got,

Dunya Taylor  38:19  
yeah, and, you know, and I do it in a in a graceful way, you know, if you need any help, let me know. But, you know, I just, unfortunately, don't think it's a good fit.

Tracy Hayes  38:27  
I think it's, you know, we're talking about that test that John Brooks recommended. It's, it's very important. And I think they're getting better at the those tests. You know, I've taken them 1520, years ago. You know, some employers would throw them out there, but they realized they weren't working, but they've gotten better at the, I think, the disc, and then this Clifton test that I was taking and breaking down and like, who you need to work what you need to be doing, in a sense, in a standpoint of what your your strengths are. And Brittany books actually mentioned it last week. She said, You know, we are trained to work on our weaknesses. And really, that's not Yeah, you can work on your weaknesses to get better. Like, hey, I want to dribble with my left hand, because I'm right handed. I can do that really well and dribble my left hand. Yeah, you can, you know, work on that and get better at it. But really, if you're putting yourself in surrounding yourself with those people who mesh with you and the personalities and the drive, which sounds like your team, you guys are very competitive, internally and healthy, wise that you all you're driving in the same, same direction. The sky's the limit.

Dunya Taylor  39:26  
Absolutely, it really is. And we've helped each other grow tremendously. And even I have grown just based off of my agents and everything, just them motivating me, you know, you know, they claim I'm a good broker, but, but, but, you know, we do a lot together. We definitely, you know, we like to eat together. And we we just talk about random stuff in the office. You know, it's not just us in there goofing off. It's us going over stuff, going over contracts and meet new people. And, you know, getting our name out there.

Tracy Hayes  39:53  
What motivates you? If you were to narrow it down, one thing you know, what you're doing, like when you get. You get out of bed this morning besides going, Hey, man, I get to do this great podcast with Tracy. What motivates you though about your team? If you were to narrow it down to like, one thing, like, you just excited to get in in Concord a day. What is that motivation?

Dunya Taylor  40:14  
Well, it's really about helping others. I know how excited I was to buy a house, and I tell my agents, I'm like, even they get so excited over their closing days. You know, it's a big deal for you know, a lot of people are like, oh, yeah, I had two closings today. No big deal. But we like to celebrate those you know, we call it cocktails and

Tracy Hayes  40:30  
closings. Okay? So cocktails and closings.

Dunya Taylor  40:33  
I like it, yeah, but it helps them grow too. They want to do more and more and more, and seeing the customer happy at the end of the day and not stressed out, and having a great experience is huge for all of us. I mean, it's definitely one of the reasons we wake up every day and go out there.

Tracy Hayes  40:48  
Well, that's your focus on because you have two customers. You also have the team that signed up under you and is looking for that value. What is it that so you're motivated by wowing your your customers, and having a great experience in the in the cocktails and closings. What is it? What is it about your team that motivates you? What have you created there?

Dunya Taylor  41:10  
Remy, well, so basically, the fact that they want to do more, like they're they are driven agents, and that's what I like. I'm very driven, you know, I started not doing a whole lot. And I basically said, you know, kind of like Ryan says in his book, you know, big money, big energy, you speak it into perspective, and that's what they do. And, you know, seeing them so happy, and seeing them want to learn more, and having them call me and ask me questions, like, I love that. Like that motivates me, for sure, and it helps me grow. And like, if I don't, if they asked me a question, and I don't know. I'm like, Oh, that's weird. I don't know that. Let me

Tracy Hayes  41:43  
find out. Yeah. Let's call well, you sound yourself with other smart people like you. Do you know who to call? Yeah? Hopefully knows the answer

Dunya Taylor  41:51  
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, their drive is what motivates me too, and just seeing them so happy and wanting them to grow. And I tell them all the time, I'm like, just follow my lead. It's work. I'm successful for a reason. Just follow my lead. It may not work right now. You may go three or four months without a closing but then boom, your business will pick up. Just keep doing consistency.

Tracy Hayes  42:09  
Going back to the consistency factor, how important? And it sounds like it's just the way you're describing it. And this is why I just thought of this question, how important is it to show up to whether they if they're on, if they are doing the training by zoom that they are engaged. I'm not a big zoom call training person, because, unfortunately, I think too many just turn it on and they go and do other things. Oh, hey, I was, I was I heard it, but you didn't. You weren't listening. And, you know, or if it's coming into the to the office, engaging with you, engaging with your other agents that are there. Or, you know, like you said, the how important is it to show up? It's at a reasonable enough social since, because there's a lot of them

Dunya Taylor  42:55  
going on there is, yeah, there is. And it's important even just to show up in the office. I feel like, you know, just because it gets you in the right mindset of what, how you're doing, what to do, and how to do it, right? Essentially, it is super important, you know. And a lot of people think, Oh, I have my preferred lender. I don't need to go to that networking event. Oh, I don't need to go here. I don't need to go there. And it's like, it's not about who's putting it on. It's about the people that you're meeting and the relationships that you're Oh,

Tracy Hayes  43:19  
my Wow. All right, chalk that one up. That's got to be a sound bite. But it's the people that are going to be there. Like I said, it's not the sponsors. I mean, great if it's one of your people who you want to you know you support already, do business with, obviously, but you don't know who you're going to run into. You don't you don't know who you're

Dunya Taylor  43:38  
going to run into. You don't know what you're going to learn from that. And you don't know the type of relationships you're relationships you're going to have after that from that event, right?

Tracy Hayes  43:45  
Specifically? Well, I mean, how important? I mean, you've been in the business long enough you've done you as a broker and a leader. How important is it sometimes to actually know the realtor on the other end, especially, you know, we've, the last year and a half or so has been so competitive in the offers to know that the offer is coming from you, or even one of your people that are following you. Jamie, here this morning came with you, that realtor. On the other end, you're like, Oh, you're making an offer. Oh, yes, I know, yeah,

Dunya Taylor  44:12  
it is really important, because that's how you build the relationships in the industry, for sure. Now, there's a lot of new agents out there, you know, and so there's, there's a lot that we don't know but, but having a relationship with somebody that you've known for the last 10 years, it's going to be a smoother process. Yes, it definitely, even if it's somebody you met a year ago, at least, you know that person. You know you see them at events, you know they're trying to grow too so you can work together. You know, in building it, there's a there's a line, one

Tracy Hayes  44:37  
of the things I heard recently, and makes total sense, I think I forget who it says. So someone who's listening, I'm sure will will remember saying this, but I'm just I heard the words and it was, you know, when you make that offer, you've got to follow up with the selling agent. So many of these companies, new agents, or ghost agents, kind of throw their offer out there and then, like, hopefully someone calls them back. Yes, it correct. It's afternoon, yeah, and if you're going to the social, obviously, making that call to the selling agent who maybe you met at a social, you know, hey, I remember we met at this and so I just wanted to follow up on my offer. All of a sudden, the guards go down. Oh, yeah, I remember seeing you face

Dunya Taylor  45:15  
to face. Absolutely, yeah, that's a big thing. And that goes back to the whole relationships that you build in the industry, because it just it makes not only your life easier, but your customer's life easier too, because then it's a lot smoother process.

Tracy Hayes  45:27  
That's why they're hiring you. They're hiring you to win. They're hiring to get their offer accepted, yeah, exactly, and get in the home that they're looking for. The previous you did a little time in a small boutique brokerage. What you mentioned about, what did you take from her?

Dunya Taylor  45:42  
She's the one that actually helped me build more of, like a family based brokerage, you know, because her and I were really close, you know, we talked a lot. And, you know, I want to say we were kind of like sisters, you know, because, like, you know, we talked a lot about everything, not just real estate business. We had the person to talk shop with, exactly, yeah, exactly. And she helped me. She basically helped me with everything in Baker County. She knew everybody. She was born and raised there. She knew everything out there. So just being with her helped me make all the relationships that I've made out there

Tracy Hayes  46:12  
describe, because you've used this term several times so far today,

Dunya Taylor  46:16  
the family, yeah, so we're so we're really, what does that? What does

Tracy Hayes  46:19  
that mean someone who's out there, maybe in the corporate world, think about, hey, I want about, hey, I want to get into real estate. Or maybe someone who's at a place that's not a family oriented brokerage. It's like, what are they talking about, family? Or what is that all about? So what is your description?

Dunya Taylor  46:32  
So you know, basically, you know, we love each other, we hate each other, we fight, we hug, we pray together. She allowed to yell at each other. We actually have fluffy boxing gloves in our office, you know, if we have a misunderstanding or something, you know, pull out the gloves, finish the finish the conversation, and then you're all fine and

Tracy Hayes  46:53  
dandy after the one thing I always admired when I went, when I went to you if you had a conflict with somebody, this is at the Citadel. There was, I don't even know if they do it anymore, but 30 years ago they did. There was a mat room for the wrestlers, right? That's where the wrestlers pray you could go down.

Dunya Taylor  47:09  
It helps in a healthy way. It helps. But we're like that. They were really close. We're very comfortable talking to each other. And I have a private Facebook page of all my agents. You know, if I'm unavailable, which is very rare, I have to be like, on a flight to be unavailable, but they can go in there and ask, everybody sees it, yeah, everybody sees it. Somebody's responding even before I get a chance to get in there and respond to it. We're always covering for each other, especially summertime. A lot of my agents have, you know, three or four kids that you know. So if they're out on vacation, activities, yeah, yeah. Then we're into fill in form, show houses, and we're just a big team.

Tracy Hayes  47:45  
Essentially, what comes around goes around, exactly. Everyone's gonna have that moment where they need some coverage, and they don't have to go off and negotiate some sidebar deal and say, you know, I'll get the next one. I'll cover you. This one you cover me on because I'm going away here in a couple months. Whatever it may be take, my calls for me, or whatever, that's what you, you know, a team, a family, that you expect. I think it's very Absolutely, and you're, if you're, if you being the gatekeeper who comes into this family, how important it is to choose those that kind of have that same sort of attitude, yeah, absolutely towards it, to help each other out, because there's some, I mean, we were talking a little bit out there, and we were talking about the market conditions and so forth. And, you know, I was doing loans, and I remember Summer, summer, 2007 man. It was man. And, you know, how many times every agents gone through it? I mean, how many times did you want to quit? Yeah, right, we all go through that, and you need those people around you to, you know, pull you up by the bootstraps and and say, you know, let's get back on it.

Dunya Taylor  48:46  
It took a long time to close the deal. Then, too, it really did. So when I was buying my first house, when I got my license, you know, it was during all this foreclosure and stuff, and I think it took nine months to close my Oh, wow. And, you know, a lot of real estate agents will stick around that long, you know, they want instant money. They want 30 or less days. And you know, that was just, that was the market at the time.

Tracy Hayes  49:05  
Well, I mean, and to tip on the other end of scale, where you you had that situation, then on the other side of scale, I'm and I've told the story, obviously, on the podcast before, my wife and I made an offer as Thanksgiving of Oh, eight. It was on Tuesday, and the offer was accepted on Wednesday. Why? Because the agent had a relationship with the the selling the bank, in that case, had a relationship and got our offer accepted before we had Turkey on Thursday. Yeah. So how important is that? So I'm just gonna regroup and we'll kind of wind things down here. Okay, who has been the most influential person in your real estate career? Ooh, maybe multiple people, but let's give them a call out.

Dunya Taylor  49:46  
Yeah, I don't know. There's been quite a few, so I'm a big

Tracy Hayes  49:50  
there's gotta be someone you resource more than I mean, when something comes to you that that you know how to handle the team or whatever, is just someone. And some of my summer, I know a lot of agents have coaches or a pseudo coach, mentor, maybe not someone they're paying as a coach, but someone who they actually

Dunya Taylor  50:08  
look well, I mean, he's not in real estate, he's actually in lending. He's a friend of mine. His name is Darren. I've known him since I was in college. He actually worked with my sister at a bank years ago. Okay, he's kind of the one that talks me off the ledge. Okay, so I call him for all kinds of advice, because he doesn't really know a whole lot of people in the industry, other than on the lending side, because he's been in it for 20 plus years or 30 plus years. So I call

Tracy Hayes  50:33  
not that old. He couldn't if he went to school with you could have been 30 plus years he was

Dunya Taylor  50:37  
getting his master's when I was getting my bachelor's.

Tracy Hayes  50:40  
Okay, couple years, all right, you're at that all.

Dunya Taylor  50:44  
But he's been doing it for a long, long time, and, you know, he doesn't know any of the agents. So when I call him in the scenario, he's like, What? What are you talking about? So I'll give him all the situation, and he'll basically set me in my place and tell me, Hey, you're wrong, or the slender is wrong, or this agent's wrong, or, you know, whatever. And he kind of helps me understand from a different perspective, an outside source that doesn't know anything that's going on, right? You know,

Tracy Hayes  51:07  
you can call and confident, you know, pitch silly ideas to whatever. But one thing, one thing for sure, for those listening out there right now, I'm gonna tell you, you know, there's no lender that does everything, and if you're talking to a loan officer who's only worked at one lender, not that there is a problem with that, but many times. And as I've learned, you know, my starting my first eight and a half years, was with Quicken Loans. Well, they're just bread and butter. What's, you know, mainstream volume things, these off bank statement loans, or, you know, crazy things, or we mentioned earlier, buying a manufactured home on 53 acres. They don't do those loans. And so if you've only been in that world and you don't understand that, there's other lenders that do those, those unicorn loans off here and there, you know? And that loan also, it can't be done that made my way true VA loans. There's a lot of lenders at 50% debt ratio. They will not go over that on a VA loan yet here and another lender worker, we've gotten improved almost at 70% on the debt ratio. So it's just what they have some their own internal overlay. So you have to understand that where that person's coming from, which it sounds like this person's more of a has a broader Yeah,

Dunya Taylor  52:16  
he does it. And I actually don't do a whole lot of business with him on the real estate side at all, even though he's a lender there the company that he works for, just, you know, they don't have a lot of programs that, you know, help my customers, or anything like that. But you know, he definitely, like, we grew our businesses together, and we have a great relationship to where we can, you know, the minute I have a business idea, He's the first person I call him, like, hey, let's talk about this. My husband and I've been been suing on it for about a month. Now, you know, what do you think from an outside perspective?

Tracy Hayes  52:43  
Exactly, whether you have this person personally or you hire a coach, having a mentor is so, so important. Now, have you had a have you brought a brand new person on that's never sold a

Dunya Taylor  52:56  
home before? Oh, yeah, most of my agents are actually brand new agents. Okay, so

Tracy Hayes  53:00  
what it kind of was just a couple things. First things you do with them. Initially, we go over contracts.

Dunya Taylor  53:06  
Yeah, we go over contracts. I have like a welcome to bring me email, and it basically lists everything out. We initially start doing the social media plan and any other marketing plan in the beginning. So why, while those are running, we're on the back end doing the education on how to do stuff.

Tracy Hayes  53:21  
And what are some, you know, like, obviously the contract, like, Hey, you're a new agent. Need to do one, two and three, what, or a, b and c, what are some staples that just this has got, we've got to execute on this. This, this is what's going to make get you off.

Dunya Taylor  53:36  
So basically, the marketing is what's super, super important. You know, we have to make sure that their marketing is intact. And then also the processes. I have a few pages of different processes, okay, when you're submitting an offer this, these are the steps that you do when the offer is accepted. Now, these are the steps that you do. And I feel like that helps a lot, because, you know, a lot of times agents are working so fast that they forget steps. You know, they forget, oh, I need to do this. Oh, I need to do this. And how many days? So we have checklist items.

Tracy Hayes  54:05  
So it brings up an interesting thing, because we're talking about, talking about my loan officers to some of the new ones. And, you know, we, yeah, we want to jump. We got to get the marketing going, because you got to get someone's got to call you to actually do a deal. But you're calling and you're bringing that person to the door. But you also need to know what's behind the door, when the actual when they actually go out and actually want to make an offer. Oh, what do I do now? Okay, because you work 90% of our businesses to make that phone ring. The other 10% is actually the deals and knowing what's going to happen afterwards. How important is it to help them do the marketing piece?

Dunya Taylor  54:38  
So the marketing is, to me, is the easiest piece. It's learning how to do all the steps that are included with it. It's not just writing an offer and submitting it and great. The lender does everything else they don't. You got to do the home inspection. You got to go over the inspection.

Tracy Hayes  54:51  
You got a title company. What title company you

Dunya Taylor  54:54  
got it? You got to do everything and just kind of educating them on like, the processes right in the beginning. And I told them, we try. Me for a couple hours. I'm like, You're gonna forget everything. You will you will forget there's a lot of information that you have to know, but we do it in stages. So we'll do, like, a contract, you know, training, not just nefars contract. We'll do the Florida Realtors contract as well. And, you know, they'll write notes on the contract and figure all that out. And then we'll go through the next step. Okay, now let's talk about inspections. Let's talk about what to look for in different inspections. If it's a mobile home, if it's a beachfront property, if it's the service, these are the items that you look for. Certain types of financing need certain types of inspections. So then we'll go through that whole process, and then the next thing you know, we'll

Tracy Hayes  55:32  
just back to the education piece. Back to the education piece. Keep working on the education. And it's not you're spending eight hours a day in the class, because you'll, yeah, they won't retain most of that, but taking it in chunks, whether it's an hour a day or whatever you set aside, so to every day, they're adding to their notebook every single

Dunya Taylor  55:50  
we do random little it's called Real Talk with Remy chats.

Tracy Hayes  55:53  
Real Talk with REM somebody else had something, oh, I know it was actually one stop. They have a, you know, basically the real world of real estate. That's not called, they call it something else. It was very unique name like that they quoted where they actually, they agents get together, and that's their meeting. And they're, they talk about all the different contracts and all because, like you mentioned earlier in their sales meeting, everyone's different. Everything is some may be similar, but all different.

Dunya Taylor  56:20  
And it helps to talk, talk it through with other people, because everybody has different ideas and can learn from it, right?

Tracy Hayes  56:26  
Whether they're on the buying or selling side, exactly you're learning from it all right? We're gonna go into our Two Minute Warning questions. Number one question, I think I've asked this on every one of my 75 episodes. Is it more important who you know or what you know and why?

Dunya Taylor  56:42  
Okay, it is more important you know. And my husband always says it, he always says it's more important on who you know. But if it's not what you know, then who you know doesn't matter either.

Tracy Hayes  56:52  
Well, if you're, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you're mind blank, I mean, we can go to that extreme. I definitely,

Dunya Taylor  56:58  
I definitely think it's all about who you know, and just building the awareness of who you are and meeting people. That's definitely how

Tracy Hayes  57:06  
I totally agree the what you know you can you can find out they're not that you want to go out there totally blank say, hey, I want to go open a real estate and not even had like, any experience, or even talk to another realtor or anything like that. I want to go with my own brokerage, and you don't know anything about real you don't even know the contract, right? You want, you're going to open a brokerage, and you don't even know anything about the contract, yeah, if you have, like, a stack full of money, because you're going to go through it, but you know, you're going to learn those things. But get that engine going, you got to reach out to people who've done it before, who've experienced it and all things. They were just talking about, the education, you know, exchanging the

Dunya Taylor  57:43  
stories here, all that will come with

Tracy Hayes  57:45  
so to touch a little bit on we were talking, we talked about the lifestyle. I think we're talking about the cdds I teach lifestyle. I think, I don't think I ever finished that statement. But anyway, what is your favorite thing to do

Dunya Taylor  57:57  
in Northeast Florida? My favorite thing in Northeast Florida Fish. You like to fish?

Tracy Hayes  58:03  
Do you? Are you like in you like to go offshore? No, you'll just go into St John's or just that. Yeah, the retention pond in your community.

Dunya Taylor  58:13  
Outdoorsy person. So anything outside, you know, whether it's riding a side by side or getting on a boat, you know, we're definitely boat

Tracy Hayes  58:20  
people, right, right. Interesting. Well, Daniel, Daniel, I appreciate you coming on the show today. I think it was a great show. I hope a lot of people out there got to know you, whether they're a buyer or a seller or a real estate agent who may be just looking for that family oriented where everyone and everyone in the tight community, like I said, you only have 16 agents, not only, I mean, I mean, that's a mid size. I would say mid size. It's not hundreds of agents, like exit, nor it's not a small boutique with just four or five agents. 16 is a reasonable number, and the fact that you're keeping them all intact, and you're very picky who's on that team, those people should feel very special. Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much.